Ellis Quarter Horses started when I married Mike Ellis in 1971. I was a typical young girl who lived and breathed horses. I remember the disappointment every Christmas when "Santa" didn't bring me a horse. Then, when I was 7 years old, on Christmas Eve, my father took me to an old barn that we had behind our house, and in it was the most beautiful Shetland weanling pony I could ever imagine.. Her name was Ginger and Ginger made quite an impact on the small community of New London, Wisconsin. She was quite small and the local taxi would transport her around town. She would stand on the floor behind the front seat. Since my father was a doctor, there was no problem taking her to the hospital where she would go into the kitchen and the nuns who ran the hospital would feed her cookies. She would ride the elevator and the patients loved seeing her. We would take the back seat out of our car
and take Ginger to family gatherings. What a sight to see a pony in the backseat of the car with the pony cart attached to the roof.

From the Shetland pony, I moved to full sized horses. Dixie was a palomino grade mare that I would haul in an old one-horse, one axle trailer to the local horse shows. My "forte" was western pleasure and egg and spoon. I was good at both of these classes. I finally convinced my dad that I needed a registered quarter horse and that started it all.

Over the years, I have learned from the mistakes I made and I realized that the only way to be successful in this horse business is to own the very best mares you can afford. Unfortunately, since I didn't have money to spend on horses, I found mares that I liked the conformation and bloodlines on and kept upgrading. The mares that I have now are from my breeding program except for Shanes Lady Romantic that my dear friend, Lanis Noble and I own together.

From our small group of mares, we have raised horses that have won 9 AQHA World Championships plus a Palomino and Buckskin World Champion and on Australian World Champion. I feel very fortunate to have Dr. Katharine Fox as our veterinarian. She is very good at embryo transfer and has even frozen some embryos. I learned how to ultrasound and purchased my own machine so that I could save time and money by doing my own breeding work. I love the breeding and foaling part of the horse business.

Our help consists of Bob Luebker who has been with us since 1985, my husband Mike and I. Mike is a State Senator and has been in the legislature since 1971. Both Mike and Bob have full time jobs but manage to find time to help around the farm. We grow our own hay and oats and bale our own hay. Ellis Quarter Horses is located in the beautiful Fox River Valley and is situated between Neenah and Oshkosh, Wisconsin across from Lake Winnebago.

I invite you to view our "home on the web" and also to come and see us in person. I am very proud of our horses. I love taking pictures and I try to keep the current news updated. I hope you enjoy your visit to Ellis Quarter Horses.